They don't have a USB2 speed. However, if you look at the OC3, 156Mbps speed, to fill that drive under optimal conditions, it would take over 7 minutes. Sure, USB2 can theoretically do 480Mbps, but I've never seen anything close.

I would be happy for my external USB2 SATA 1.0 drive to be able to copy at OC3 speeds. According to all specs it can, but when I backup my home's 175GB "data" drive it takes about 6 hours.

Are you using an old computer which has USB 1.0 if so then yes it will be slow you can buy the best usb stick in the world and it will be still be slow it all depends on the speed of the usb port based on your motherboard.

You may see a pop up message on your system that says this device can achive faster speeds, so try any other usb ports on the computer to see if this helps things